Elizabeth came to visit us for 10 days in April, which included her 24th birthday. Because she not only visited Shanghai with our family in 2005, but also visited with Chris in 2012, she really wasn't interested in seeing much of Shanghai. She wanted to travel.
Her main wishes in Shanghai included seeing Peter, Nickle & the kids and getting inexpensive prescription sunglasses and new glasses at the eyeglass market. So, she arrived on Wednesday, and we took her to dinner at the Big Bamboo, one of the kids' favorites, with Peter and the kids. Unfortunately, Nickle was in Singapore when Elizabeth arrived and the in the U.S. when we were in town between trips, so Elizabeth will have to wait until Peter & Nickle move back to N.Y. to see Nickle.
On Thursday, 4/17, Elizabeth and I headed to the eyeglass market first thing. We ordered her 2 pairs of prescription sunglasses, a regular pair of glasses for her and a pair of Chris's
reading glasses, all for about $100 US. Such a great deal! Then we went to Xintandi, a pretty area of restaurants and shops, to meet Michelle, one of Elizabeth's best friends from UPenn, who also happened to be in Shanghai visiting her grandparents. Michelle and Beth's visits overlapped by one day, so we met Michelle and went to lunch at Din Tai Fung, one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. After lunch, we headed to the South Bund Fabric Market to get some clothes made. Michelle picked out a couple of blouses and a couple of jackets and Beth got a trench coat, a leather jacket and 3 blouses. I even got a couple of nice silk tops, all of which would be ready the following week, after we returned from Xi'an.
We parted with Michelle after the Fabric Market and headed back to Pudong, stopping for DVDs before picking up Chris for an Indian dinner at Kebabs on the Grill. Unfortunately, the area of India that their food is from uses a LOT of nuts, so I had much less choice in what I could eat there, but Chris & Elizabeth enjoyed the food.
We watched a number of DVDs while Beth was here and enjoyed a lot of good ethnic food. But after such a busy day in Shanghai, we had to get up early the next morning to head to the airport for phase two, our Shanghai Expatriates Association (SEA)-sponsored group tour to Xi'an and Luoyang.
This past week, our youngest daughter, Miranda, visited us in Shanghai during her spring break. Miranda is in her freshman year at Cornell's College of Engineering and seemed to be in need of a relaxing spring break before returning for the last round of tests and classes prior to final exams in May.
While Miranda has been to Shanghai before, it was in March, 2005, when she was 9-years-old, and she doesn't remember everything. She has some memories, but mostly of Beijing, the Great Wall, and a few images of the time we were in Shanghai. However, she didn't have much time in Shanghai during this visit as spring break is only a week long, so she didn't want to do a crazy amount of sight-seeing.
She arrived on Sunday, March 30, and Chris gave her a quick ride on
our e-bike around the neighborhood and past Peter's house, although they were all in Cambodia and Vietnam for their week's vacation. We went to Cantina Agave, a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. On Monday morning, we headed to the local "fake" market for some Lululemon clothing, purses, wallets, shoes, etc. - not only for Miranda but also to take back to the U.S. as gifts for friends. After that, we went to the "Bottle Opener" - Shanghai's World Financial Center - and had a delicious lunch at Din Tai Fung, a nice Chinese restaurant. It was too overcast to go up to the observation deck, so we walked to the Super Brands Mall, wandered around Lujiazui and then headed home. Due to the time difference and her college sleeping schedule, she was waking up early and getting tired pretty early, so we played a lot of cards in the morning and watched some movies in the evening, but not a lot of late-night stuff.
On Tuesday, we headed to Denise, our pearl lady, who is in a new pearl market outside Yu Yuan. We then walked through the Yu Yuan, checking out the Chinese craftsmen and picking up some nice souvenirs for her friends. After a delicious lunch at Fortune Cookie, the American-style Chinese restaurant run by two Cornell Hotel School grads in Shanghai, we headed to the Jing'an Temple. Even though it is being renovated, this is still a lovely temple to visit in the heart of Shanghai.
Chris had to work on Wednesday and Thursday, so Miranda and I headed out on our own on
Wednesday morning to visit The Bund. It was a sunny day, so it was nice to see some of Shanghai. After strolling along the Bund and taking some pictures, wewere off to see the Shanghai Museum. The porcelains and jades were beautiful, as were the Chinese paintings and the furniture. We decided to head back to Pudong and have massages at the Dragonfly in the afternoon. Last but not least, we met Chris for dinner at Bollywood, a local Indian restaurant.
On Thursday, we headed back to the Fake Market for some more Lululemon and more gifts for her friends and sisters. After we stocked up there, we headed to the JinMao tower to have a nice Italian lunch at a restaurant on the 56th floor. The view there is beautiful, so we still didn't bother with the observation deck of the World Financial Center, as we could see a pretty good view of Shanghai from our lunch table. We headed back to JinQiao pretty early on Thursday so we could have dinner at Simply Thai
before heading to the Mercedes Benz arena for the Bruno Mars concert. We had third row seats, on the left side of the stage, so we had a great view of the concert. It was a really good show and the music was great.
Miranda finally slept in on Friday morning, just in time to head back to the U.S. We took a quick e-bike ride over to Peter's house so Miranda could see it, and meet Peter's Ayi, Anny, before she had to head back to the airport to fly home. It was a very short trip, but it was great to have her here. Especially after her last 2 years of high school, when she was the last daughter living at home and Chris was traveling most of the time, I really got used to the two of us spending a lot of time together and I miss her a lot. We are so happy that she's doing well in college, has made a lot of friends, and seems to be really enjoying herself, but we miss her and were happy to have her with us in Shanghai, even if only for a short while.
On Friday, March 28, Kate, David, Peter, Nickle, Kennedy, Colin, Cameron and I flew a little over 2 hours southeast from Shanghai to Guilin. Guilin is situated on the west bank of the Li River and the name means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus", owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city.
Upon arriving in Guilin, our guide took us to the airport to check in and then took us on a brief tour of the "village." Guilin, population 700,000, is not considered a city in China because the population is not over one million. We saw the twin pagodas and the many bridges in Guilin modeled after famous bridges throughout the world, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Tower Bridge. We had a quick lunch in a traditional Chinese restaurant near the hotel, including a serving of beer fish, a famous Guilin delicacy. Not so great from my point of view, but the dumplings that didn't contain sesame oil were a hit in my book.
Our guide took us to the Ludi Yan, the Reed Flute Cave, which was incredible. It is a natural limestone cave with multicolored lighting and has been
one of Guilin’s most interesting attractions for over 1200 years. The cave is
over 180 million years old and filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and rock in all kinds of formations. The cave got its name from the type of reed
growing outside, which can be made into melodious flutes. We had a great time climbing down into the wide, expansive cave and enjoying the creative names of the various rock formations. Our guide informed us that many international heads of state have visited and even attended governmental dinners in the largest, lowest open area of the cave. It was just beautiful and vaguely reminded me of Timespell, the light show that used to be show on the rock walls of Watkins Glen State Park, at least, if Disney had designed the light show.
After touring the cave, our guide took us to Elephant Trunk Hill. Elephant Trunk Hill is the symbol of the city of Guilin. It got its name
because it looks like an elephant drinking water. The round opening
that would be under the elephant’s trunk is known as Water-Moon Cave
because at night the reflection of the moon can be seen through the arch
and it looks as if it is under the water and floating on the surface of
the water at the same time. Elephant Trunk Hill and Water-Moon Cave are
located at the confluence of the Taohua River and the Lijiang River. We had fun strolling through the park there and then walking back to our hotel.
Our guide left us at the hotel to wander the shops on our own and find dinner. The kids were fairly enthusiastic about western food, so we tried a restaurant in which the waiters had to leave and walk across the street to collect our food. As is usual in China, the food all came at different times, with all of the adults being served before any of the (starving) kids. Finally, Kennedy and Colin got their ham bao baos (hamburgers), but Cameron's salmon never came. We finally left, after a heated discussion with the wait staff, and got the kids hamburgers and ice cream at McDonald's. We walked back to our hotel, the Waterfall Hotel, for the evening show - when the side of the hotel turns into an actual waterfall. I don't know how they do it, but water was streaming, full speed, down one side of the hotel. We saw 3 of the windows open on that side and couldn't help but wonder if those rooms were full of water.
Because Guilin is quite a bit more southern than Shanghai, the weather was hotter and definitely more humid there. We had some rain on Friday and pouring rain on Sunday, but a beautiful day on Saturday. Good thing, because, we left the hotel, after breakfast on Saturday morning for boat a river boat cruise up the Li River (Lijiang) to YangShou.
Every beautiful picture you've ever seen of Chinese mountains, mist and rivers could have been taken in, or painted of, the Li River cruise to YangShou. It is incredible and beyond anything you can imagine. Every view, every vantage point, is a stunning photo and breathtaking image.
You can understand why rock climbing in China was started in, and is still cenetered on, YangShou. The hills, which look like small mountains to this somewhat Midwestern girl, are stunning peaks of limestone, shooting out of the ground at unusual angles and in a variety of stunning shapes.
Our river boat cruise was 4 hours long and included lunch, although no one really cared to eat too much of it. The plain white rice wasn't bad and the orange slices were good. :) We were interested by the American tour group sharing the boat with us - a group of American families who had adopted Chinese girls and were returning with them to see China and to eventually visit the orphanages in which the girls previously lived. The girls seem to range from about 8 or 9 to about 14 and were completely American, so much so that their parents said they were having trouble getting many of the girls interested in the sights and history of their birthplace. The girls were having fun together, talking, texting, taking photos - typical American pre-teens and teenagers.
One notable spot on the cruise, along a stretch of non-stop incredible views, is the area which is dispicted on the back of the 20 RMB bill. We dutifully took pictures there, holding up the bill, to compare with the incomparable sight.
YangShou the town is only 11,000 people, by far the smallest, more rural area I've visited in China. Once we docked in YangShou, we walked to our beautiful hotel and checked in. We had great views of the hills and the river from our terraces. After that, we wandered West Street, stopping in stalls and stores and looking at the local crafts. Eventually, we made our way to dinner and then to a water show on the banks of the Li River, The Liu San Jie Light Show. While the Chinese audience continues to talk, loudly, throughout the show, including telephone calls, and it rained briefly, but loudly, due to all the plastic ponchos being put on and taken off, the show was none-the-less very pretty. It was directed by the man who directed the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and had a similar feel, with 600 performers and boats, dancing with ribbons, and in LED lighted costumes. The boys fell soundly asleep, quite a feet in such sticky humidity, and had to be woken to walk all the way back to our van for the ride back to the hotel.
Sunday morning, we woke to loud, crashing thunder storms and pouring rain. Fortunately, that hadn't been the day of the river cruise. We packed up and headed back to the Guilin airport for our flight back to Shanghai. While everyone else was continuing on to Vietnam and Cambodia, I was returning to the apartment in Shanghai, where Miranda was waiting for me. Chris had picked her up at the airport earlier for her spring break visit to Shanghai.
All-in-all, Guilin and YangShou are situated in one of the loveliest places on the planet. This was certainly one of most beautiful natural areas I've seen in my life, and I was born and raised in one of the most beautiful places on the planet as well - Watkins Glen, NY. I have more pictures than I could ever post of the incredible sights, and I treasure every one of them. I highly recommend this trip if you ever have the chance.
